Last week, between the 7th and the 9th of January, at Kenya's School of Government, teachers from Machakos and Naivasha secondary schools gathered together for the first time with a group of Master Trainers where they were introduced to a new mobile platform for Science, Technology, Mathematics and English language teaching. The training was the first in a two-year MasterCard Foundation project being implemented by GESCI in Kenya and Tanzania. The project will pilot the innovative use of ICTs to train secondary school teachers to improve their pedagogical skills and ability to integrate ICT into their teaching practice. It will address two key challenges: The poor quality of teaching and learning in secondary schools, reflected by poor student performance in Science Technology, English and Mathematics (STEM), and the need to make education relevant to the needs of 21st century learners by preparing them for successful working lives- whether through regular employer recruitment or by applying the entrepreneurial and enterprise skills and know-how acquired. Gabriel Mathengge of the Teacher Services Commission (TSC) applauded the project, describing it as one of the most important in the Ministry of Education, and one that was being monitored closely. Niamh Brannigan, Communications Manager for GESCI, speaking on behalf of GESCI's CEO, and Esther Wachira, SIPSE Project Manager, both stressed the importance of skills development for teachers, explaining that the project, first and foremost is about incorporating innovative practices into teaching across the STEM subjects and that this would be accomplished through new skills development and new pedagogical practices. This they said, would be supported by technology but was not about technology, but about teachers delivering educational content in new and inspiring ways. Every project school was then awarded with a new laptop and some other equipment to enable full project implementation. The same training is being delivered in Tanzania this week. The project will run until June 2015, and if successful will be scaled-up by the Ministries of Education in Kenya and Tanzania.